When a couple books me for their wedding photography, I include a complimentary photo session as a "practice run". This helps break the ice, and gives the couple a first-hand preview of how things will work on the day of the wedding. Not everyone is instantly comfortable in front of the camera, and most people have not had the opportunity to be the subjects of professional photography. This way, we can go for some fun, casual, no-pressure shots long before the wedding happens.
Most of the time, the couple will come dressed fairly casually, which makes for a great contrast with the wedding photos. But not Clara and Galant! Last Sunday, they came dressed to the nines and ready to rock! Since they wanted plenty of photos to show off at their Hong Kong wedding and reception, we booked an extra-long session and planned out an appropriate walking/driving route. We started at my place on Yonge and Queen's Quay, walked west towards Harbourfront Center and the waterfront fire station, then drove to the iconic Humber River bridge to finish the day with some sunset shots.
Here are just a few of the images captured that afternoon... if you want to see the rest, I guess you'll have to ask them for an invitation to the reception!
This is a half-wall along the path behind the Harbour Square condos. Yay for bare feet!
This is another little wall along the shoreline as we walked west towards Harbourfront Centre.
Same wall, this time with a bit of selective focus action.
And now over to the bride-to-be...
For some reason, the "Blue Steel" look has been very popular with our grooms this year. It doesn't seem to matter whether you're Indian, Chinese, Polish, whatever... everyone's doing it!
We found a quiet little nook away from the crowds, right beside that odd hollowed out concrete sphere. Anyone know what that thing is called?
Resting up on the pier behind the York St Second Cup before continuing westward.
We tried this shot three or four times... they just barely missed here, but I think it still looks great. Onlookers applauded and cheered when Clara and Galant finally "made contact".
I think these two have been practising their "looking off into the distance" poses for the shoot. Too cute!
It's not often we get to shoot on the beach in Toronto, so we take what we can.
I love the yellow umbrella against the blue sky in this shot.
We ran into a fellow with a cool '72 Chevy Chevelle Malibu that he restored himself. It was the exact same colour as Clara's dress, so we had to take a bunch of shots with it!
Meesh's sunglasses lend a bit of coolness to this hot shot!
The Humber River bridge wasn't actually deserted, but the wind blew Clara's dress just the right way to hide the people in the background!
Modelling is such hard work... gotta be able to have some silly shots too!
The sky was just gorgeous right after sunset, especially with the bridge in the background.
See, there's that pose again! :-)
Last shot of the night... I can't tell if he's excited or angry!
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Comments
*whistles innocently*
And congratulations Galant! :)
You are such a great photographer. Everytime that I see your pictures I hope to become as good as you one day. Congratulations on this series of pictures they are fantastic.
Paolo
and accidentally running into a guy with the same colour car? come on... who has luck like that? you phoned ahead or something. :)
soooooooo gorgeous!!!!
Just when I think my wedding shots are getting better you post these and blow me away ;)
Blue Steel, CN Tower, yellow umbrella, and all the Humber Bridge shots used off-camera flash. The rest is ambient lighting.
The trick is knowing what flash power to use to go with what aperture and shutter speed, which also has to take into account your ambient lighting. And you have to be able to do all that in your head in a few seconds, as not to keep the client waiting. ;-) It just takes practice, and soon you'll be all "oh, this looks like 1/200s, f/8, flash at 1/4 power from 8 paces away".
Hey, do you have any upcoming shoots planned? If I'm free, I might be able to come join you with some equipment so we can play with the off-camera stuff.
I actually hate using flash for anything but am trying to get past that as obviously it's effective if used correctly!
I do have a couple of shoots planned, I'll have to figure out which ones have the more patient models who won't mind us tweaking stuff to get a better effect :D
Also, do let me know if you still need any assistant help or a second shooter. I'm trying to move away from the 9-5 and do more stuff in my field.
Well, let me know... e-mail me at brian -at- luxography -dot- ca.